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Measuring screen resolution versus viewport size

There’s a difference between the ‘screen size’ measured as standard in Google Analytics and the ‘browser size’ or ‘browser viewport’. Especially on mobile devices, there are pitfalls comparing the two.

Browser viewport is the actual visible area of the HTML, after the width of scroll bars and height of button, address, plugin and status bars has been allowed for.

The CSS tricks site found only 1% of users have their browser viewing in the full screen. While only 9% of visitors to his site had a monitor less than 1200px wide in 2011, around 21% of users have a browser viewport of less than that width.

Simply put, on a huge monitor you don’t browse the web using your full screen. Therefore, ‘screen resolution’ may be much larger than ‘viewport size’.

The best solution is to post browser viewport size to GA as a custom dimension.

P.S. Google Analytics does have a feature within In Page Analytics (under Behaviour section) to overlay Browser Size, but it doesn’t work for any of the sites I look at.

Edward

Founder of Littledata, Technical Lead and Product Consultant. He has broad experience helping companies with business strategy, product development and technology management.

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To target -- and retarget -- the right shoppers, ecommerce sites need to connect customer behaviour and ecommerce data from Google Analytics with their Google Ads (AdWords) accounts. But until now that was a complicated process, to say the least.
Marketers have spent years going through detailed setup steps to connect the platforms, or wading through spreadsheets with manual imports and exports, building custom audiences and segments. It was an ongoing headache, but they did it because connecting shopping behaviour data with AdWords campaigns gets big results.
Now there's a better way. Littledata's new Google Ads connection makes it easy to link Analytics to AdWords. Ecommerce sites are using the connection for smarter targeting that increases online sales and customer LTV.
Why should you link Analytics to AdWords?
In past posts we've highlighted the benefits of linking Analytics with AdWords for a mutually beneficial relationship. Littledata's new connection automates the process to ensure accurate tracking and more targeted campaigns. Benefits include:
Online sales data in AdWords reports, and visa versa. Add sales columns to reports in Google Ads and view Google Ads costs in Google Analytics.
Abandoned cart campaigns. Get higher ROI with targeted PPC campaigns based on shopping cart activity.
Ecommerce hyper-segmentation, especially for Shopify stores and enterprise clients. Since Littledata fixes ecommerce tracking across the checkout flow, the Google Ads connection is especially powerful for marketers looking to retarget with granular user behaviour data, such as product list views, product detail pages and adds-to-cart.
Multiple accounts. Multiple views. Our Google Ads connections lets you link multiple AdWords accounts to multiple Google Analytics views. It's that simple.
Wait, do you mean Ads or AdWords?
Have you heard the news?
Google AdWords is now Google Ads. Google pitched the switch to Ads as a large-scale rebrand for simplicity, but it's clearly targeted in part at bumping up competition against other 'ads' in common parlance: Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads and Twitter Ads, with Reddit Ads quickly gaining pace among SaaS companies in particular. We still talk about AdWords a bit on the blog (as does the rest of the internet, such as Search Engine Land), but soon we'll all have to adapt to the change.
So we're calling this new connection a Google Ads connection, but we don't expect marketers to stop chatting about AdWords any time soon.
How does it work?
After you sign up for Littledata, you can connect Analytics to AdWords from the Connections tab in the Littledata app.
Just follow a couple of setup steps and the app makes the connection for you. No more manual connections. Plus, we audit your analytics setup continually to ensure consistent ecommerce tracking, campaign tagging and UTM parameters.
So what are you waiting for?
Those products aren't going to retarget themselves...
And don't forget to try our Facebook Ads connection to complete your marketing analytics stack. It's an easy way to link Facebook Ads to Google Analytics. All paid plans in the Littledata app include a variety of Google Analytics connections for Shopify, Shopify Plus, ReCharge, Refersion, CartHook and more.
PS. The next iteration of our Google Ads connection will provide automation for retargeting using ecommerce segments. Sign up for Littledata today so you're first in line!

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) and Google Analytics have constantly proved their worth as valuable tools for ecommerce marketers to get insights and detailed reporting on advertising ROI. But why should you link Google Ads and Google Analytics together? What does it mean to connect them?
Our enterprise ecommerce customers in particular have seen a major benefit of linking Analytics with Ads. Those who linked these two platforms have seen a significant improvement in reporting and it made it much easier to retarget ads to clients that have forgotten or abandoned their services but shown intent to purchase a particular product or type of product.
Why connect?
Is it really necessary to connect Google Ads linked with Analytics?
Let's get down to basics. In the Ads platform you can’t see what your users do after they click on your ads or if said ads led to a sale, you can’t see their path on your website, so you are basically losing the big picture of your customer’s behaviour after they see the ad. In short, without connecting the two technologies together, your shopping funnel is incomplete. You can't see Google Ads performance compared with other marketing channels, or how those Ads actually contribute to revenue.
Both Google tools have their individual strengths but you can see their real power once you have linked both of them.
If you are already using both Analytics and Google Ads but haven’t linked them yet, then you are missing a lot of valuable information about how to connect marketing with revenue -- and where to optimise.
[subscribe button_text="Free Google Analytics Connection"]
With the two platforms tied together, they will be able to communicate much more efficiently and provide more granular data in your reporting. Google Analytics has a dedicated section within the Acquisition reports solely detailing Google Ads performance which you cannot obtain unless you have linked your Google Ads and Analytics accounts and are using auto-tagging in Google Ads.
These reports share some common information with the types of data that can be found in Google Ads, but here you are able to combine and link the Google Ads data with all the data available in Analytics to find more meaningful insights and potentially make better decisions. Moreover, you are able to leverage these insights into a number of different goals that you wouldn’t be able to easily see in Google Ads.
Surprisingly though, a full connection doesn’t happen automatically. Yes, they are both Google products, but you need to do some work to connect the platforms and then take action based on that data.
Google's thoughts on connecting Google Ads with Google Analytics
This quick video highlights the benefits of linking the two platforms together (whether you call them Ads or AdWords is up to you...marketers are still a bit confused by Google's rebrand).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EmXFM1_xEo
Top four benefits of linking Google Ads with Google Analytics for ecommerce
1. Retarget based on checkout steps in ecommerce
The most effective way to grab these customers is to target them based on where they dropped off. Luckily, Google lets you do exactly that: with the right analytics, you can set up retargeting campaigns based on checkout behaviour.
We highlighted this in a more comprehensive blog post on how you can improve Google Ads retargeting by analyzing the customer behavior during checkout. Our customers have been applying those tips and seeing results in less than a week.
Learn more about how to improve AdWords retargeting using ecommerce checkout steps.
2. Retarget based on users who reach a Google Analytics goal
You can set up a simple or complex goal and then target that audience with the right messaging. For example, even a newsletter subscription can lead to a goal completion. That user showed interest in your product and with a bit of persuasion and smart ad targeting, you’ll most likely succeed in transforming that lead into a buying customer.
PRO TIP: Watch our video on troubleshooting your Google Analytics goals setup if you're having issues with goals.
3. Block advertising to people who have previously purchased
An effective retargeting audience setting is crucial. There is no need to spend money on retargeting ads for people who will not be convinced to buy by them. If someone has already purchased a product from your online store, then the chance of them buying the same product in the next few days is nihil. If you don’t set an effective retargeting audience, you are more likely to spend way more money for with no result.
The solution is to exclude people who recently bought your products from retargeting for a certain period, and you’ll be able to retarget them again after a certain time frame. That means that if John from California just bought a shirt from my website, I will not retarget him for the next month; he will not see any ads of the shirt appearing on his browser for that period.
[subscribe "button_text="Free Google Analytics Connection"]
If you want to see the best result of with your retargeting campaign then keep this in the back of your mind when making campaign planning. You will be left with more budget to spend on retargeting ads that are actually effective and most important of all, a happier audience.
4. Send different adverts to different segments of customer lifetime value (LTV)
Our biggest customer segment right now is automated analytics for ecommerce subscription businesses. It should come as no surprise that subscription ecommerce merchants get a special benefit from linking Ads with Analytics.
Littledata's ReCharge connection enables you to see customer lifetime value and create different audiences based on a customer’s last purchase or the number of orders placed.
By this segmentation of audience you can customise your PPC ads and reach the right people who are already loyal to your brand and know your products. Your ROAS will be amazing and you won’t have to make huge efforts to get major results.
Questions?
The benefits above speak for themselves, so what are you waiting for? Especially if you run an ecommerce site, the time to connect is now :)
If you’re trying to connect Google Analytics with AdWords for an ecommerce site, it should go smoothly. But sometimes an account manager can help with custom setup and reporting, or simply check to make sure you’re tracking things correctly. Littledata’s pricing options include various levels of support to fit every business size and goals for growth.
Check out our free guide on how to connect your Google Analytics and AdWords accounts.